Was Hughton unfairly axed?

With Monday's sacking of Chris Hughton, Mike Ashley has seen five managers leave St. James' Park in just under three years as Newcastle United owner.

In a move which has baffled English football, Hughton has become the latest casualty on Tyneside, despite taking over a Newcastle team confused and lost after being relegated to the Championship, and leading them back to the Premier League.

The official Newcastle line is that Hughton 'lacks managerial experience', which in some circumstances may be true, but surely it is unfair to suddenly axe a man who has taken a newly promoted club to 11th in the table and who in the last month has lead his team to an emphatic derby win (5-1 vs. Sunderland), victory against Arsenal (0-1) and a draw against then league leaders Chelsea (1-1).

With whispers suggesting that Martin Jol will be taking over sooner rather than later, is it a case of Mike Ashley once again making wholesale changes when unnecessary, or is it time that Newcastle made the leap while the team are in a good position?

Despite being unfairly treated and under a degree of pressure from the beginning, was Chris Hughton really the man to take the Toon Army forward? Was he just a stop gap to stabilise the club after the fallout of relegation? Or is he just too inexperienced to be considered a high-calibre Premiership manager?

And what about the squad? Hughton has dealt with some colourful characters on Tyneside, most notably in the form of Joey Barton and Andy Carroll, controlling their temperaments and allowing their football to do the talking. There was no doubt that he has a good grip on his players, and they reciprocated his efforts. Yesterday Jonas Gutierrez even tweeted: 'Thanks for believing in us when nobody else did.' Will the fallout of their manager's departure prove detrimental to a squad who, after all, were relegated two seasons ago and could we even see them slide back down the table again?

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